Apple Donates $5 million To Support Hurricane Victims

Apple announced Friday that it will donate $5 million to hurricane relief efforts.

The gift will support Hand in Hand, which has been collecting donations for various organizations , including United Way and Habitat for Humanity, in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Its efforts recently expanded to include Hurricane Irma relief, which is projected to hit Florida on Saturday.

Our thoughts and prayers are with those affected by #Irma . Please stay safe! Apple is proud to support #HandInHand .

https://t.co/BYJ6qPWh4p
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) September 8, 2017

This weekend, Apple will also add a button to the iTunes store allowing users to donate directly to Hand in Hand. A similar store link benefitting the Red Cross has been in effect since late August, in connection to Harvey.

Hand in Hand will host a benefit telethon on Sept. 12 organized by Bun B and longtime Justin Bieber manager Scooter Braun. Per CNN , it will air live on networks including ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and HBO.

Dozens of stars, including Beyoncé, Drake, Tom Hanks, Hilary Duff, Jimmy Fallon, Gwen Stefani, and Sofia Vergara, are slated to make appearances during the telethon.

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Google, Apple Removes Over 330 Risky Apps

Google and Apple have removed over 330 shady financial trading apps from its App Stores which are seen as a risk App following an intervention by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

According to a report in Fortune, ASIC discovered that unlicensed individuals were operating the apps, which focused on binary trading.

According to the Report; "In binary trading, people predict whether the price of a given option will go up or down in a short amount of time, and then buy or sell based on their predictions,"

When the regulators reviewed the apps, they found that the owners of these apps failed to disclose to the users the risky nature of the trading practice.

"Instead they made it appear that people could get rich quickly by using their apps. Some of the apps contained marketing messages that bragged that people could 'Earn up to 90 percent in less than an hour'," the regulators revealed.

It was also discovered that about 80 percent of the apps that were pointed out did not warn of any risks while few were collecting personal information from users which could be used for high-pressure cold calling.

After the Australian regulator notified both Google and Apple, the two tech companies promptly removed the apps from their online stores.

"We were encouraged with the speed both entities removed the relevant apps identified by ASIC from their respective app stores," the regulator said in a statement.

"We also note that Apple recently changed its review guidelines to state that apps that facilitate binary options trading will not be permitted in its app store," the statement added.

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Watch, Record Live TV Using Plex For Android And Apple TV

Plex, the smart media streaming service, has just announced a host of new options for users when it comes to watching live TV via the Plex player.

Now Android and Apple TV Plex users will be able to effectively use the service like a DVR, not only to watch live TV but also to pause, skip around and record as needed.

Sure, you’ll need a digital antenna and a tuner plus a Plex Pass, but the end result is an all in one solution for watching live TV.

Plex has just announced the update which rolls out to Android and Apple TV, having upgraded from being in beta form.

What’s really exciting about this is that you can record live TV on your Android device, jump on a plane with no connection, and still enjoy watching that TV show.

Another nice example from Plex is the ability to stream live TV across the world to your hotel room. Why you’d want to watch Corrie when you’re on holiday is another matter we’re not going to get into.

While Plex has announced the Android and Apple TV updates it has also said we can expect the same smarts to arrive soon for Roku, Fire TV and Smart TVs.

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Apple Paid Nokia $2 billion To Settle Patent Disputes

Apple paid Nokia 2 billion dollars to settle patent disputes between the companies. Back in May, both companies agreed to drop lawsuits and made a multi-year patent exchange agreement. However, the specifics of that agreement weren't disclosed at the moment.

In an earnings call this week, Nokia revealed that the company received $2 billion in cash, as part of the agreement. The company also gave more details on how it will co-operate with Apple in the future.

Nokia says the collaboration with Apple will help strengthen its networking and digital health business units. Over time, the royalties received from Apple, in terms of patent licensing sales, will be reflected in its future earnings. How the company plans to utilize the $2 billion cash will be disclosed in next quarter's earnings call.

Last year, Nokia sued Apple in the US and Europe for patent infringement. As a result, Apple fought back and launched its own lawsuit against the company ; many healthcare products from Withings, a Nokia company, were removed from Apple's web store.

This wasn't the first time the two companies were in legal battles with each other. It's always good for consumers when big companies agree to share their expertise instead of fighting. It will be interesting to see how the agreement plays out for Nokia financially, in its post-Microsoft era.

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Dwayne Johnson Announced New Siri Movie With Apple

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has revealed that he's starring in a Siri-themed movie (The Rock x Siri) that launches July 24th on Apple's YouTube channel. He didn't give details (other than that it's the "coolest, sexiest, funnest" movie ever), but it's safe to say there will be some plugs for Apple's voice assistant. We've asked Apple if it can elaborate on the premise.

Teamed w/ @Apple to make the biggest, coolest, sexiest, funnest (is that a word?) movie ever. Drops TOMORROW!
#ROCKxSIRI #DominateYourDay✊ pic.twitter.com/STwlCPsVUh
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) July 23, 2017

It's not hard to see why Apple would go to the lengths of crafting a movie with an A-list celeb (even if it's ultimately a glorified commercial). Siri is about to become particularly important to Apple's bottom line thanks to the HomePod, and a high-profile video might boost the AI helper's image as it competes with the likes of Amazon's Alexa and Google Assistant.

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